Irrigation systems using pop-up sprinklers are generally used anywhere fine control of water direction and flow is needed. These types of sprinklers are usually located under the sod of mulch and pop up through a small opening when the water is turned on. The water pressure pushes on a plunger that raises the nozzle barrel. They are spring loaded and when the water is turned off, they go back down in the ground cover.
Irrigation systems that include pop-up sprinkler heads can get sand or dirt in the system. This occurs when sand is sucked up in the well, when a line breaks, or when the system is built. The pop-up sprinkler uses small holes to control the flow that can get clogged and do not work. The “pop-up's” are generally designed with a built in removable filter to keep the more expensive nozzle from getting plugged. Routine maintenance is required with the current systems.
The standard way to do maintenance is to turn the water on in a zone, walk around while the sprinklers are on, and mark any heads in need of maintenance with a small flag. Then turn off the water and go back to repair the flagged heads. A zone can be anywhere from ten to fifty heads. Providing maintenance for these sprinkler heads requires several steps.
In a first step, the nozzle has to be located under the grass. This is made more difficult since the sprinkler system was just on, which would have caused a puddle of water or a puddle of mud around the area of the head. Next, the individual sprinkler head is located. Next, the maintenance provider needs to grip the head usually with some type of tool, such as needle nose pliers, in order to pull the head up out of the grass. There is no designated place to grab the nozzle so the pliers often lose their grip and the head with spring back underground and the process has to be started all over again. Once the nozzle barrel is up it has to be held with one hand while all the maintenance work, such as cleaning out the head, and the like, is done with the other hand. There are several problems with the current maintenance process
Besides the tedious chore of having to grip the head with tools such as pliers, the tool can damage the sprinkler head, since the head is often made of plastic. Often the head becomes scarred from the teeth of the pliers. Also, the tools can further damage the heads making the heads useless and needing to be replaced.
Additionally, the current maintenance process is difficult since it requires the maintenance provider to limit their maintenance work to only using one hand. This one hand operation is necessary since the maintenance provider must support the head in the upright position for maintenance work with the other hand. This current process will also cause the actual work to take longer since both hands cannot be easily used.
The inventor is aware of several prior art references. See for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. D468,612 to Coulter; 7,121,478; 7,076,847 Schwope; 7,059,539; 6,629,648 to Jones; 5,133,501 to Rachels; 4,274,592 to Westhusin; 3,257,079 to D. S. Ross; 3,624,717 to Brubaker; and 2,031,159 to R. W. Griffith describes a device for holding a cylinder. However, none of the individual references singularly or in combination overcome the problems described above.
Thus, the need exists for solutions to the above problems with the prior art.